Typical prior art cantilever contacts are of the type having a support arm or beam that is relatively fixed at one end and otherwise is relatively free to bend as a member, such as a male pin contact, electrical lead, or the like, is inserted to engagement with a contacting surface usually proximate the opposite end of the support arm, i.e. opposite the relatively fixed end thereof. There are a number of disadvantages inherent in the prior art cantilever contacts. For example, such a cantilever contact may be too easily overstressed causing a permanent deformation therein and, thus, a reduced or eliminated effectiveness for future electrical contacting purposes. Also, the force resisting insertion of a member to engagement with such contacting surface may vary extremely widely in dependence on the amount of bending of the cantilever arm.
There is, of course, a wide variety of electrical connectors using electrical contacts therein to effect electrical and mechanical connection with members inserted to engagement therewith. Typically, such a connector includes a relatively fixed electrically non-conductive housing for supporting one or more contacts therein. The housing usually has one or more access ways for guiding other members, such as pin contacts, electrical leads, etc, intended to be inserted into the housing, to good electrical and mechanical connection with the contacts therein. One such connector is designated a breadboard, which is an apparatus having multiple sets of contacts for connection with various members inserted to engagement therewith, with each such set being connected in electrical parallel, whereby two members inserted to engagement with respective contacts of one set will become electrically connected via such contacts. Usually each such contact is contained in a discrete cell-like volume or containment area in the body of the housing for electrical isolation purposes.
In accordance with the best mode and preferred embodiment of the present invention, the features thereof will be described hereinafter with respect to such an electrical breadboard. However, it will be appreciated that the various features of the invention may be employed with other types of electrical connectors.
One type of electrical contact frequently use in electrical breadboards has been the fork contact. A typical fork contact has a pair of arms or tines extending parallel to each other and outwardly from a common electrically conductive base. An advantage to such fork contacts is the effective wiping action of the contacting surfaces associated with both tines against an inserted member and other advantages are the balancing and thus halving of forces effectively deforming the tines as a member is inserted and the self-centering of the inserted member between the tines. However, such fork contacts usually must be formed of a relatively high quality and, thus expensive, metal or alloy for good contactability and resiliency characteristics. A particular disadvantage of a fork contact vis-a-vis a single arm cantilever contact is that the former usually requires up to twice the amount of material compared to that needed for about the same size cantilever type contact.